In short, we do not find poetry in the Scottish dialect at all _kept up_ in Scotland.

It is every year becoming more a matter of research and reminiscence.
Nothing new is added to the old stock, and indeed it is surprising to see the ignorance and want of interest displayed by many young persons in this department of literature.

How few read the works of Allan Ramsay, once so popular, and still so full of pastoral imagery! There are occasionally new editions of the _Gentle Shepherd_, but I suspect for a limited class of readers.

I am assured the boys of the High School, Academy, etc., do not care even for Burns.

As poetry in the Scottish dialect is thus slipping away from the public Scottish mind, I thought it very suitable to a work of this character to supply a list of modern _Scottish dialect writers_.